• Rural Returns: Journeys to the Past and the Pagan in Folk Horror

    Author(s):
    Derek Johnston (see profile)
    Date:
    2019
    Group(s):
    Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Horror, Television Studies
    Subject(s):
    Identity (Psychology), Group identity, Horror, Motion pictures, Television
    Item Type:
    Conference paper
    Conf. Title:
    Gothic Journeys: Paths, Crossings and Intersections
    Conf. Org.:
    Gothic Association of Australia and New Zealand
    Conf. Loc.:
    Surfer\'s Paradise, Queensland, Australia
    Conf. Date:
    22-23 January 2019
    Tag(s):
    Folk horror, Identity, Cultural identity, Film
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/5fs1-fb58
    Abstract:
    A central element of the core folk horror texts (The Wicker Man (1973), Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), Witchfinder General (1968)) is the idea of rural communities as retaining pre-Christian practices and beliefs. When uncovered by a modern outsider who is returning to the countryside, these revelations disrupt their world view. Folk horror texts do not resolve this tension between worldviews, present any ‘victory’ as bittersweet and neither side is shown to hold all of the answers. The sustaining of this tension beyond the end of the narrative suggests that folk horror speaks particularly to our contemporary uncertainty, where organised religion and political organisations no longer hold all the answers, but retreat to the past also does not appear to present a sustainable alternative. This paper will show the importance of the rural return as a movement in time as well as space, one which invokes a strong sense of cyclicality in the rural space-time in tension with the linear industrial time of modern urban living. Examples will be drawn from the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of folk horror films, as well as related texts such as the Robin Redbreast and the BBC series The Living and the Dead.
    Notes:
    Original script of presentation, may differ from final delivery.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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